Project Upland Magazine

Project Upland Magazine Project Upland is dedicated to those that love wild birds, public lands, shotguns, and hunting dogs. And who knows, maybe we will bump into you along the way.
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We understand the niche diversities of the upland hunting culture: grouse hunters are different than chukar hunters, pointing dog folk are different than spaniel folk, and those double gun people are committed—but so are those vintage pump collectors, too. What we all share in this love is the stories that move our culture toward the future while celebrating the past. We strive to tell those stori

es to inspire everything from the next hunt to the first hunt. To share a little bit about myself as the founder—I grew up hunting grouse and woodcock on the weekends with my father over a Brittany named MacGyver. I would smuggle hunting magazines into my bedroom and read them with a flashlight under my covers while dreaming about my first pointing dog. My uncle would drop me off on random logging roads and point in a direction and say, “Eventually you will end up at camp if you walk long enough.” All are adventures I still crave today: the wildness of grouse, the romance of logging country, and the hum of gas lanterns at night with friends and family. Deer hunting took up a lot of time through my high school and college years, but I always found my way back to the grouse woods each season. When I finally worked that bug out of my system, I did get that pointing dog I’d always dreamt about. He’s a Griffon named Grim and, well, if you found your way to Project Upland then you know how the story goes from there. Now I spend each fall season at my family’s camp, hunting behind my dog in the north country of New England. I occasionally wander out to experience new places like the prairies of the West. I developed an unhealthy financial relationship with side-by-side shotguns, yet I never seem to find the perfect one…

In 2014, I founded Project Upland while chasing bird hunters and dogs through the Northwoods with a camera. I set simple goals of sharing other people’s love for the uplands and creating art from it, not to mention having a convenient excuse to hunt more often. In 2018, the simple goal somehow evolved all the way to a print magazine and, in 2020, it escalated to the print volumes of Hunting Dog Confidential. Our promise to our subscribers, readers, listeners, and viewers is to deliver high-quality storytelling from all over our community that is a realistic reflection of the upland- obsessed. We strive to give ample effort, time, and resources to the cause of upland conservation to help ensure that future generations can enjoy better habitat and greater bird numbers. We are far from perfect, but we seek to evolve ourselves and learn along the way in order to serve the community as a true representation of what we all love. If we tell one story, produce one film, or take one photo that inspires someone to either rekindle or discover their love for the uplands, then it was all worth it. The family at Project Upland hopes you find yourself following dogs across the unique habitats of the North American landscape in pursuit of wild birds as often as you can. Here is to your journey in the uplands and each season to come.

The basic recipe for the sauce starts with adding sugar to an ungreased pot and letting it melt into a liquid. The liqui...
07/16/2025

The basic recipe for the sauce starts with adding sugar to an ungreased pot and letting it melt into a liquid. The liquid then gets cooked until it develops a rich, brown hue, and then the protein is added to develop some color before being braised in a combination of coconut water/juice, fish sauce, and sometimes soy sauce. Garlic, shallot, and chilies are then added to provide some aromatics to add extra flavor to the sauce.

This all worked fantastically with the wild turkey thighs, which came out sweet and salty with deep umami notes and an overall Vietnamese flavor profile due to the fish sauce and aromatics.

Braised in a rich, caramelized sauce until tender enough to shred, wild turkey thighs become sweet, salty, and incredibly satisfying.

Oklahoma offers upland bird hunting opportunities for bobwhite quail, scaled quail, pheasant, and more on public wildlif...
07/15/2025

Oklahoma offers upland bird hunting opportunities for bobwhite quail, scaled quail, pheasant, and more on public wildlife management areas and Oklahoma Land Access Program (OLAP) lands. Additionally, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) provides season updates for some species before opening day. In 2022, hunters harvested about 43,000 pheasants. According to ODWC upland game biologist Tell Judkins, “In 2024, we are seeing the statewide quail average up by about 48% over 2023… Hunters will likely find areas of good quail numbers where habitat and weather conditions were favorable.” The 2025 season update is forthcoming.

Learn about pheasant, bobwhite quail, scaled quail, and other small game hunting opportunities in the Sooner State.

While habitat quality is still the main driver in game bird populations across the country, weather plays a close second...
07/14/2025

While habitat quality is still the main driver in game bird populations across the country, weather plays a close second. Most upland game bird species are short-lived, disturbance-dependent animals that rely on high reproductive output to grow populations. Favorable weather conditions and proper timing of these conditions often make or break a successful hatch. However, it’s not that simple. Certain species need favorable conditions at different times of the year than others, and even factors such as too much or too little rain can impact the same species depending on where it’s found in the country.

Understanding these relationships and watching weather patterns many months in advance can give a hunter a leg up on what to expect for the upcoming season and what species to target from year to year.

Explore how rainfall, or lack thereof, influences quail populations across the United States from Southwest quail to the Northern Bobwhite.

If you have spent any time in the dog world you are very familiar with the fact that there are many strong debates about...
07/13/2025

If you have spent any time in the dog world you are very familiar with the fact that there are many strong debates about using bait. People on either side of this debate are very passionate about on which side of the fence they find themselves. This debate isn’t so much about using edibles as it is about people wanting to feel good about their training, sometimes ignoring the outcome. Even within our hunting circles, there are some who avoid the use of edibles whatsoever, and those who rely too much on them.

Now in fairness, we all want to feel good about our bird dog training. I’m just as human as anyone else in making my fair share of mistakes. But when we understand the process of learning, whether it’s human learning or canine learning, hopefully we’ll be more attuned to what processes work and why they work.

Exploring the question, "To treat or not to treat?"

The action is a traditional Anson and Deeley boxlock, first patented by Westley Richards & Co. in 1875. De Carli describ...
07/12/2025

The action is a traditional Anson and Deeley boxlock, first patented by Westley Richards & Co. in 1875. De Carli described it as “a standard Anson boxlock trigger group made in a way that it’s very easy to disassemble from the receiver.” It is a design that has stood the test of time.

Though Beretta is known for their over/under shotguns, this round-action side-by-side has all the features and quality we expect from Beretta

Get 20% OFF when you order 5 or more stickers. Mix and match and still receive the discount. All stickers come with free...
07/11/2025

Get 20% OFF when you order 5 or more stickers. Mix and match and still receive the discount. All stickers come with free shipping in the United States. Discounts are applied in the cart.

Check out the latest selection of upland bird and hunting dog inspired stickers from Project Upland Magazine on high quality vinyl.

In 2022, biologists in Pennsylvania studying the nesting and habitat patterns of the eastern wild turkey made a surprisi...
07/10/2025

In 2022, biologists in Pennsylvania studying the nesting and habitat patterns of the eastern wild turkey made a surprising discovery. One of the hens they captured was twelve and a half years old, and she became the oldest female turkey ever recorded. The hen was tagged more than a decade prior.

This is extraordinary, considering the average wild turkey lives only about four years. While such a long life is rare, it reflects the success of conservation efforts that helped bring the eastern wild turkey back from the brink of disappearing in Pennsylvania.

Recovery didn’t happen overnight. It took the hard work of dedicated volunteers, biologists, and game agencies who used a range of strategies—many developed through trial and error. Their efforts not only restored turkey populations in Pennsylvania but also helped guide restoration programs in other states by sharing the knowledge they gained along the way.

Through habitat recovery, science-based strategy, and community dedication, Pennsylvania successfully restored its wild turkeys.

This dish was inspired by a bit of a mixture of the two cuisines, offering some heat from the chili oil, cooled down by ...
07/09/2025

This dish was inspired by a bit of a mixture of the two cuisines, offering some heat from the chili oil, cooled down by the presence of the smacked cucumbers, and of course the wildness of the ruffed grouse. You could always add a pinch of Sichuan peppercorn powder if you want to add a Ma-La flourish!

Smacking and salting cucumbers is a technique used in China that results in extra crunchy cukes that don’t get soggy in a salad such as this. It has the added benefit of creating lots of crags and valleys for sauce to cling to – if you slice cucumbers with a knife, the sauce just slides off the surface. Lastly, it’s just kind of fun and allows you to get a little aggression out that you may have been harboring after a tough day at work.

Beat the heat with this cucumber salad that features shredded ruffed grouse meat, a soy sesame dressing, and plenty of spice.

Only 4.1 percent of the state is public land, and bird numbers are low. According to the 2023-2024 Public Areas Hunting ...
07/08/2025

Only 4.1 percent of the state is public land, and bird numbers are low. According to the 2023-2024 Public Areas Hunting Report, Illinois hunters hunted across 401,595 acres and successfully killed 6,020 pheasants—excluding stocked pheasants—and 408 quail. According to that data, there is about one wild pheasant per 67 acres and one wild quail per 108 acres. For comparison, that same report shows 60,000 pheasants harvested in 1990.

To put this in perspective, researchers from the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute recommend halting quail hunting in South Texas when densities fall below one bird per 10–20 acres.

Illinois isn’t Texas, but that contrast paints a bleak picture.

While upland hunting opportunities in Illinois are limited, they offer a chance to experience remaining bird populations.

Maintaining a dog’s focus and keeping them grounded are important for successful training sessions and progress.
07/07/2025

Maintaining a dog’s focus and keeping them grounded are important for successful training sessions and progress.

Maintaining a dog's focus and keeping them grounded are important for successful training sessions and progress.

How one conservation dog helps the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife combat the spread of invasive aquatic muss...
07/06/2025

How one conservation dog helps the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife combat the spread of invasive aquatic mussels.

Fin, Washington’s mussel detection dog, is trained to help stop the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels in the Columbia River Basin.

Many people think Dickson round actions are as Scottish as clan tartans and kilts. But that’s not 100 percent true—the i...
07/05/2025

Many people think Dickson round actions are as Scottish as clan tartans and kilts. But that’s not 100 percent true—the idea for these guns came from Germany. In 1879, an Edinburgh gunmaker named James MacNaughton, who had apprenticed with John Dickson and Son in the 1850s, built a gun based on an unusual design he had learned about from a German-born gunsmith named Julius Coster. This design placed the hammers, mainsprings, and sears on the same plate that held the triggers (the triggerplate). MacNaughton called his shotgun the Edinburgh. In 1880, John Dickson and Son created its version of MacNaughton’s triggerplate gun and called it the round action. Dickson had been building hammerless, centerfire shotguns (Anson and Deeley-patented boxlocks and Scott and Baker-patented sidelocks), but while these guns were top quality, they used other makers’ signature designs (Westley Richards and W & C. Scott). With the round action, John Dickson and Son had a design it could call its own and a way to join the big leagues of British gunmaking.

Dive into the history of the Scottish gunmaker John Dickson and his round-action shotgun, what some consider the finest shotgun in the world.

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These are your stories . . .

“To expose the uplands to the world, to capture defining moments, to push our passion and culture forward, to bring our community closer, to make us feel. These are your stories.” – Project Upland Motto

Project Upland is the original bird hunting epic series from the Northwoods Collective. From award-winning films to the new Project Upland Magazine, Project Upland continues to grow and celebrate the upland bird hunting community. This multi-media platform has housed over 5 million film views and over 1 million website hits since the website launch in 2016.

Project Upland Magazine is a quarterly publication that takes readers through the four seasons of our living tradition. From history to culture, we will continue in our quest to preserve the past and welcome the future. In all this, we are committed to staying true to our collective – the DIY-ers, professional dog trainers, first-time dog handlers, dogless hunters, shotgun enthusiasts, novice bird hunters, and all the upland obsessed.

These are your stories . . .